BLUFFDALE, Utah, Oct. 26, 2019 (Gephardt Daily) — A Bluffdale woman was indicted this week after police say she falsely reported her own death.
Rebecca Spring Nielson (aka Rebbecca Spring Platt-Nielson), 44, was charged in connection with a June 25 incident in which police say she took her husband’s phone away after she realized he was talking to another woman.
The other woman then “received text messages from a phone belonging to (Nielson’s husband) stating that he had shot his wife and didn’t know what to do,” says a probable cause statement filed by an officer of the Bluffdale Police Department.
The recipient “stated that she responded, asking if he was serious, and she received more text messages from (Nielson’s husband’s) phone confirming it was not a joke. (The woman) received more text messages stating that his wife was dead and not breathing.”
The woman receiving the texts called 911. Officers responded to the residence of Nielson and her husband and used a public address system to call out Nielson’s husband.
Nielson eventually exited the residence, and minutes later, her husband appeared from inside a motorhome parked on the property, the probable cause statement says.
The husband seemed confused as to why police were there, the statement noted. He told officers that he had been talking on the phone with a female friend when Nielson started yelling at him and took his phone. Nielson also broke his laptop screen, the husband said.
Nielson then spoke with officers.
“The defendant admitted, post-Miranda, that she found (her husband) talking on the phone with another woman, so she took his phone away from him,” the statement said.
“The defendant admitted that she sent text messages to the other woman’s phone, pretending to be (the husband), stating ‘I just shot her.'”
A summons was issued this week for Nielson to appear in court. She faces charges of:
- False emergency report — emergency involving injury/death, a third-degree felony
- Criminal mischief — intentional damage, defacement or destruction of property, a class B misdemeanor.
Nielson’s bail was set at $6,950.
